The Complementary Nature

This title shows how the ubiquitous human tendency to polarize - either~or, nature~nurture, body~mind, yin~yang - can be explained in terms of coordination dynamics, a new conception of brain function, and how such polar opposites can be reconciled.Why do we divide our world into contraries? Why do we perceive and interpret so many of lifes contraries as mutually exclusive, either/or dichotomies such as individual~collective, self~other, body~mind, nature~nurture, and cooperation~competition? Throughout history, many have recognized that truth may well lie in between such polar opposites. In The Complementary Nature, Scott Kelso and David Engstrom contend that ubiquitous contraries are complementary and propose a comprehensive, empirically based scientific theory of how the polarized world and the world in between can be reconciled. They nominate the tilde, or squiggle (~), as the symbolic punctuation for reconciled complementary pairs.Kelso and Engstroms account is not just metaphorical; the reconciliations they describe are grounded in the principles and mathematical language of the theory of coordination dynamics. The Complementary Nature provides a clear-cut methodology for this evolving theory of brain and behavior that can also be applied to areas and developments outside the neurosciences, hence aiding reconciliations within and between disparate fields.